


Stay With Me

by MsMusic



Series: Tales from the Castle of Lions [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Canon Compliant, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) Being a Little Shit, M/M, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 04:11:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11798112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsMusic/pseuds/MsMusic
Summary: Shiro was gone. He was really gone. It was hard for Lance to take in. From the moment they left Earth everything seemed so fast paced, but for the first time since joining Voltron, everything just felt still. The only thing that wasn't was Keith.





	Stay With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place between seasons 2 and 3 and is sort of a follow-up to my previous work "Big Boys Don't Cry", though it mostly stands alone. Hope you enjoy my angsty little Klance fic!

Lance sat on the couch, staring off at nothing in particular. Shiro was gone. He was really gone. It was hard for him to take in. From the moment they left Earth everything seemed so fast paced. Even during their downtime there was this undercurrent of anxiety, of always getting ready for the next mission, of knowing there was still danger out there. For the first time since joining Voltron, everything just felt still. There was no buzz or unrest in the air, just nothing, and Lance wasn’t quite sure how to react.

After a few minutes, Lance heard footsteps coming from down the hall. He looked up to see Keith. “Did you find her?” Lance asked, remembering what Keith had gone off to do. Ever since Pidge ran out of the black lion they hadn’t been able to find her. Eventually, they all gave up except for Keith.

“Yeah,” Keith responded, “She was hiding inside one of the wall panels by her lion.” Well no wonder they couldn’t find her. Lance smiled a bit at how clever their youngest paladin was, but his face quickly fell when he remembered why she was hiding in the first place.

“Is she…” Lance trailed off, not quite sure how to finish the question. Okay? He knew she wasn’t okay. How could she be, none of them were. He finally settled on just asking, “How is she?”

“She’s… hanging in there,” Keith responded with a sigh, sitting down next to Lance. “I talked to her for a long time, managed to calm her down a bit. Even got her working on looking for clues as to what happened. I sent Hunk down there to give her a hand as well.” Lance felt a pang of anger flare up inside him. What was Keith doing telling others what to do? Who died and put him in change? Lance stopped that train of thought before it continued, but he still couldn’t help but hate how calm Keith was about all this.

Keith rose from his spot on the couch and turned to Lance. “We’ve gotta go suit up.” Lance looked up at Keith with a blank look on his face, refusing to stir from his seat. Keith seemed to sense Lance’s confusion and explained. “Zarkon’s ship should be gone by now. We can take our lions and see if there’s anything out there, anything that can lead us to what happened and help us find Shiro. Come on.” Keith started for the exit, but Lance didn’t follow, instead rising from his seat and holding his ground.

“Are you joking?” Now Lance was really getting annoyed. “You’re not the leader here, you can’t just tell me what to do.” Keith sighed, clearly aggravated by Lance’s defiance.

“Come on, we don’t have time for this,” Keith said as he gestured to the door in front of him.

“Oh I think we’ve got nothing but time,” Lance shot back, anger rising in him. “Look, man, I know you and Shiro were close and all, and I know you wanna get him back, but we  _ just _ lost him, give me a chance to deal.”

“We did not  _ lose _ Shiro!” Now Keith’s temper was starting to flare up as well. He seemed to catch himself because he took a deep breath before continuing. “Shiro is missing, yes, but he’s not gone, we just need to find him. And we find him by looking, so let’s  _ go _ .” Lance crossed his arms, refusing to take one step towards the red paladin.

“Missing, lost, gone, whatever, he’s not here. Shiro was — is our leader, and you’re treating his disappearance like it’s some big chore or something, like it’s just another mission.”

“I am not!” Keith shouted, finally stepping toward Lance.

“Am too!” Lance yelled. Keith pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Look, Lance, I don’t wanna argue.”

“Says the guy who’s ordering other people around like he’s some big hot shot!”

“I’m just trying to take the lead on this. Seems like no one else is going to.”

“Yeah right, like I’d ever take orders from some Galra dickhead like you!!” 

Silence. Keith just stood there, shocked. Lance was about to comment on Keith’s lack of a witty comeback before it dawned on him what he had just said. There was a rule, an invisible line they all knew about when it came to Keith. And Lance just crossed it. 

Keith didn’t say a word, but his face said all Lance needed. He was stunned at first, just at a loss for words. It quickly evolved into pain, hurt that Lance, someone he trusted was okay with his alien heritage, would say something like that. And finally, it turned into something almost akin to anger, but not quite. It was a stoic sort of rage that hid so much more behind it.

“Fine,” Keith finally spoke, “stay here. And when Shiro gets back, good luck finding a new red paladin. I’m done.” And with that, Keith stormed out without another word. Lance just stood there, unsure of what to do next. This was bad. Sure, he and Keith had their fights, but when it came right down to it, Lance always had his back. He couldn’t afford to break that trust, especially not now. He decided to go after Keith and apologize. 

Lance made his way towards Keith’s room, hoping the red paladin had gone their to get his armor on before heading out. As Lance approached the room, he heard yelling coming from inside. He hesitated to open the door, but when he heard something break he knew he had no choice but to go in. When the door slid open, there Keith was, screaming and cursing and tearing the room apart. Lance tried to get Keith’s attention as the door slid closed behind him, but Keith didn’t seem to notice until he bumped right into him. 

Lance grabbed ahold of Keith, trying to calm him down, but Keith resisted. He struggled to pull away, kicking and screaming and punching Lance’s chest again and again, but Lance just kept trying to soothe Keith until… Keith broke down. Tears were flowing down his face as he fell into Lance’s arms. The pair collapsed on the ground as Lance stroked his friend’s back as he whispered words of reassurance that everything was going to be okay. It was unreal. Lance had never seen Keith fall apart like this before. He knew Keith was just hiding his pain about Shiro disappearing, but he had no clue how bad it was. So he just stayed there, trying to soothe his grieving friend.

They stayed there for a long time. 

After a while, the two were just sitting there in each other’s arms, no sound except their breathing, no movement aside from Lance’s hand going up and down Keith’s back. Finally, after what felt like ages, Lance spoke. “I’m sorry about what I said. I know you trusted me and I betrayed that trust, but I promise I don’t think any less of you just because of where you come from. I was just lashing out. But that wasn’t fair to you and I’m sorry.” Keith gave a heavy sigh, but it was more out of exhaustion than annoyance.

“It’s okay. I mean it’s not okay, but I forgive you and I’ll get over it.” They stayed there it silence for a bit longer. “Can we get off the floor now? My legs are getting kinda cramped.” Lance chuckled a bit before getting up from the ground, offering Keith a hand. He took it and they sat side by side on Keith’s bed. Lance left a bit of distance between him and Keith, not sure if Keith would be comfortable being that close again. To Lance’s surprise  — and not entirely his displeasure — Keith scooted closer to him, closing the gap somewhat so their legs were up against one another. 

“Listen, man, I know Shiro and you were really close and I’m sure this is hard for you. I want you to know that you can always talk to me. About anything. I’m here for you, man.” Keith gave Lance a small smile and mouthed more than spoke a quiet ‘thank you’. Lance put his hand on Keith’s knee and smiled back. “It’s getting pretty late. We should get some sleep, we can head out in the morning… or whenever we get up I guess.” Lance stood up and headed for the door but felt something pull him back.

“Wait,” Keith said, grabbing Lance by the hand. Lance could see Keith’s cheeks turning pink, but he didn’t turn away in embarrassment or drop Lance’s hand, just looked at him in desperation. “Stay with me?” Lance sat back down next to Keith, allowing Keith to rest his head on his shoulder.

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked my little story, leave comments telling me what you thought, I'd love to hear some feedback. :)


End file.
